Patriot Viper V770 Overview
Released from its protective shell, the Viper 770 reveals itself as a 109-key board. A standard 104-key implementation is augmented with an additional five dedicated macro keys that sit on the left side of the keyboard. The build of the V770 is a mix of aluminum and plastic, with various black and gray colors making up the body of the keyboard. A gray top plate sits beneath the black keys of the Viper V770, making them “pop” a bit when the RGB lighting is off. The only additional color is a red “VIPER” name tag above the numpad area. Surrounding the side and top edge of the keyboard is a bit of an elevated border that serves to provide a platform for a few additional keys used to control lighting, as well as the multimedia keys and volume roller.
Speaking of the lighting controls and multimedia keys, Patriot has utilized the top border of the V770 to house these manual controls. There are eight lighting control buttons towards the left side of the keyboard that allow you to cycle through the various lighting modes, as well as adjust the brightness of the LEDs. Towards the upper right corner of the keyboard are three toggle switches that can be moved up or down to perform various multimedia functions before springing back into place in their central position. Just to the right of these switches is a nice, rubberized scroll wheel that adjust volume up and down. The roller can also be depressed to mute and unmute your audio.
The sides of the V770 feature a very angular design, with an RGB light strip running across the middle 4/5ths of the side panel.While the left side of the keyboard is home to a single USB pass-through port, the right side features a headset plug that can be used in conjunction with the included adapter to give a bit of extra cord length to your headset.
Taking a look at the bottom of the V770 reveals a few rubber feet to keep the board in place, with two standard feet available to adjust the height and angle of the keyboard to suit your needs. It is here that we also get a little better look at the cable connection used on the V770. A single red and black braided cable extends from the keyboard and terminates to two USB Type-A connectors, a 3.5mm headphone plug, and a 3.5mm microphone plug. All of these connectors are utilized to provide USB and audio pass-through, in addition to the standard keyboard functionality. One additional feature that Patriot seems to keep out of their product information is a retractable phone/tablet holder found at the back edge of the V770. This tray slides in and out of the keyboard’s base and provides a good spot for your phone or tablet to keep track of notifications, or keep tabs on how your stream is looking.
Included with the keyboard itself is a removable wristrest that also sports RGB LED lighting. The surface of the wristrest is covered in a soft touch plastic material, with a single RGB strip spanning the width, save for an illuminated Viper logo on the right side.
Held in place by magnets, the wristrest features five small spring-loaded pins that make contact with five connection points on the front of the keyboard. Once paired up, the keyboard is able to push power and lighting control signals to the wristrest. We do want to point out that these pins are quite small and one of our pins was bent upon arrival. Thankfully, a few minutes with a pair of needle-nose pliers was all it took to get the pin bent back into place and functioning.
The Viper V770 is available with a single switch type, the Kailh Red. This is a pretty common switch type for gaming keyboards, and the feel and sound is similar to that of the Cherry MX Red switch. The RGB LED on each switch is positioned along the top edge, resulting in a keycap design that places the legend at the top of the key for the best lighting. Patriot’s V770 software is able to configure each switch individually with regards to both lighting and key function.
